Work-Related Stress in the Nursing Environment In today’s health care environment, work-related stress plays a major role in the performance of nursing professionals. The nursing profession is significantly affected by the effects of stress and this often determines the quality of care that patients receive. Work-related stress develops when an individual loses the ability to cope with increasing service demands, overwhelming responsibilities, and loss of control over their environment. Preceding research has proven that high stress levels result in more staff absences, staff turnover, diminished job satisfaction, and additional costs which in return only further exacerbates staff stress levels (Wright, 2014). Nursing managers can help to control how stress affects the staff and provide ways for the staff to cope effectively. Although nurses are responsible for maintaining their health, managers can significantly reduce stress by ensuring that the employees are well educated, internal support resources are available, and external employee assistance programs are provided. The quality of leadership and management support provided to the staff can significantly alleviate stress in the health care field (Wright, 2014). By decreasing the workload, reducing service demands, and implementing effective coping strategies, stress among nurses can be decreased and the quality of patient care will improve considerably. According to McIntosh and Sheppy, (2013) stress is not always harmful and can have some positive effects on an individual (McIntosh & Sheppy, 2013). Some stress can serve as an intrinsic motivator and enhance an individual’s performance and productivity. Stress becomes a problem when it begins to decrease an indivi... ... middle of paper ... ...vironment and understand how it can negatively impact individual health and patient care. Nurses are constantly surrounded by poor health and illness and could greatly benefit themselves, co-workers, and patients by regularly relieving stress in order to maintain their health and wellbeing. Nursing managers have a duty to ensure that employees are able to cope and manage any work-related stress that may arise. It is crucial that nurses understand the three elements of stress and how they interact. Understanding these elements can enable a nurse to balance each area of their life evenly to avoid unnecessary stress. By educating staff, providing accessible resources and ensuring support is available, nursing managers can significantly contribute to the reduction of work-related stress among nurses and ensure that high-quality, holistic patient care is delivered.
In the recent past, nursing has come to the forefront as a popular career amongst students across the globe. The demand for nurses has kept increasing gradually over the years. In fact, the number of registered nurses does not meet the demand of the private and public health sector. This phenomenon has resulted in a situation where the available registered nurses have to work extra hours in order to meet the patients’ needs. With this in mind, the issue of nurse fatigue has come up as a common problem in nursing. According to the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), nurse fatigue is “a feeling of tiredness” that penetrates a persons physical, mental and emotional realms limiting their ability to function normally. Fatigue does not just involve sleepiness as has been assumed before. It involves utter exhaustion that is not easily mitigated through rest. When nurses ignore the signs of fatigue, they risk the development of chronic fatigue and other health problems that may not be easily treated. Additionally, fatigue may cause nurses to lose more time at work as they may have to be away from work for several days to treat it. The issue of nurse fatigue has permeated the nursing profession to the extent of causing errors in the work performed by nurses. Fatigue causes a decrease in a nurse’s ability to make accurate decisions for themselves and their patients. It is therefore important to find ways to curb nurse fatigue such that it is no longer a problem. Nurse fatigue is a danger to the patients, organizations and to the nurses themselves and must be mitigated adequately.
Jones, F, Bright, J, Clow, A (2001). Stress: myth, theory and research. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. p. 12.
In less stressful environment, nurses able to incorporate caring relationship, improve interactions between patient and a nurse, and develop understanding of the other person’s perspective (Nicely, K, Sloane, D., Aiden, L., 2012).
Nurses Joe and Sarah have been working in a medical surgical unit that has been experiencing a nursing shortage, which has led to an increase in the workload. Sarah has been feeling the physical effects of the stress and feels there is a lack of management support, while Joe experiences some feelings of being overwhelmed, but tries to use it as learning experiences. Joe has developed positive methods of coping, while Sarah is quickly heading towards burnout. Implications and Conclusions The information provided in the literature has great implications for practice in many units, including the writers. It is with great hopes that the research published can be presented to the committees on the unit in hopes that some of the workloads can be decreased to help with staffing and retention rates.
The first stress assessment that I took was the stress assessment rating scale. The assessment consisted of questions related to how content you are and asked about both positive and negative coping mechanisms. They asked a series of questions and asked on a scale of 1-5 if you never (5), rarely (4), sometimes (3), often (2) and always (1) do something. At the end of the assessment you add up all your scores and find your results related to that number. I received a score of 33 which falls in the range of learning. It states “You are managing to a considerable extent. There is some room for improvement. You will benefit from taking a Transformation
Nursing theories are defined as a systematic review of a phenomenon that consist of interconnected concepts. Concept analyses explore the meaning of concepts to promote understanding. They are important to the nursing field, due to the fact, they providing lucidity for our professional nursing practice. Watson (2015) stated that the purpose of a concept analysis is to determine what is known about a concept to assist the researcher in determining appropriate methodologies for additional research on the concept to further science. This paper will conduct a concept analysis on stress among perioperative patients. The Neurman Systems Model focuses on stress reduction and addresses how stress and individual response to it affect the development,
Factors such as, heavy workloads, stress, job dissatisfaction, frequent medical errors, and intention of leaving the job are all common for nurses to experience, especially during the nursing shortage crisis. Not only do the nurses suffer during a shortage, but the patients ' health outcomes suffer even more. For instance, there are higher rates of infectious diseases and adverse patient outcomes, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), upper gastrointestinal bleeding, shock, pneumonia, prolonged hospital stays, failure to rescue, and mortality. As a result, this leads to higher re-admission rates for patients. Furthermore, high patient-to-nurse ratios cause heavy workloads due to an inadequate supply of nurses, an increased demand for nurses, a reduction in staffing and an increase in overtime, and a shortened length of stay for patients. Without the heavy workloads that nurses have to endure on a daily basis, there would more time for nurses to communicate more effectively with physicians, insurance companies, and patients and their families. Those heavy workloads are the result of hospitals reducing the nursing staff and implementing mandatory overtime policies just to meet unexpectedly high demands. Unfortunately, the nursing shortage has affected nurses ' mental and physical health. For example, the most common health concerns for nurses include cardiovascular health, occupational injuries and illnesses, and emotional and physical exhaustion. Therefore, safe-staffing ratios/levels have to become the main
Aside from having so many components, perhaps what makes stress so intriguing is that it appeals to a wide audience; universal, in a sense that it can experienced by anyone regardless of the individual’s age, gender, social-economic background, culture, or ethnicity. Nevertheless, since stress exists on such a large playing field, it is safe to say that although no one is impermeable to experiencing it, we can still learn ways to loosen ourselves from its tight grips.
Hans Selye said, “It is not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.” Stress can cause it’s victims to suffer from emotional and physical anguish. If stress occurs for prolonged periods of time with little to no reprieve it can result in serious and sometimes fatal health problems. It is ironic that stress can lead to major health concerns, yet some of the most stressed people are those in the healthcare profession. According to an article from the Nursing Standard, stress is a leading cause of illness and depression among nurses (Jones-Berry, 2013). Several studies have shown that there is a direct link between stress, depression and illness and often times nurses fall victim to this link because of poor work environments and a lack of appropriate sick leave to tend to their own needs. Research has shown that stress amidst nurses is directly related to depression and illness; therefore, hospitals need to take actions necessary to decrease stress and promote well-being among their nursing staff.
There are two basic types of stress that affect our every day lives, good and bad stress. Managing psychological stressors to optimize reward is good stress, the kind that leads to peak performance, especially at the workpla...
Seward, B. (2012). Managing stress: Principles and strategies for health and well-being. (7th ed.). Burlington, Ma: Jones and Barlett Publishing.
Stress is defined as “any circumstance that threatens or is perceived to threaten one’s well-being and thereby tax one’s coping abilities” (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 72). Stress is a natural event that exists literally in all areas of one’s life. It can be embedded in the environment, culture, or perception of an event or idea. Stress is a constant burden, and can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. However, stress can also provide beneficial effects; it can satisfy one’s need for stimulation and challenge, promote personal growth, and can provide an individual with the tools to cope with, and be less affected by tomorrow’s stress (Weiten & Lloyd, 2006, p. 93).
In today’s society, leadership is a common yet useful trait used in every aspect of life and how we use this trait depends on our role. What defines leadership is when someone has the capability to lead an organization or a group of people. There are many examples that display a great sense of leadership such being an educator in health, a parent to their child, or even a nurse. In the medical field, leadership is highly used among nurses, doctors, nurse managers, director of nursing, and even the vice president of patient care services. Among the many positions in the nursing field, one who is a nurse manager shows great leadership. The reason why nurse manager plays an important role in patient care is because it is known to be the most difficult position. As a nurse manager, one must deal with many patient care issues, relationships with medical staff, staff concerns, supplies, as well as maintaining work-life balance. Also, a nurse manager represents leadership by being accountable for the many responsibilities he or she holds. Furthermore, this position is a collaborative yet vital role because they provide the connection between nursing staff and higher level superiors, as well as giving direction and organization to accomplish tasks and goals. In addition, nurse managers provide nurse-patient ratios and the amount of workload nursing staff has. It is their responsibility to make sure that nursing staff is productive and well balanced between their work and personal lives.
Stress is an ongoing dilemma that occurs in each and everyone’s life. It is a factor that is undoubtedly a part of daily living. Due to the trivial problems that occur in people’s daily lives massive amounts of stress can arise. People perceive and manage stress in many different ways. The causes and effects of stress are numerous and one’s ability to manage stress is vital in maintaining healthy living.
Nurse management in healthcare organizations can be a difficult task due to the many scenarios that must be addressed for the entire system to run smoothly. There are many parts to the system but none more important than the people that work each shift to give quality patient care: nurses and nursing assistants. A major problem for nurse management occurs when the operation runs on short staffing. Inadequate staffing, whether it occurs due to nurse shortages, hiring freezes, or call-outs, can be a difficult hurdle for nurse managers to overcome due to the increased stress occurring in nurses that must perform with a heavy workload. Possible causes for this problem include difficult working conditions and negative attitudes toward the organization--problems that could be caused by short staffing, in turn creating a snowball effect. The problem occurs on a healthcare unit managed by a nurse supervisor who guides nurses (LPN and RN) and certified nursing assistants (CNA) while completing patient care on a shift by shift bases. The problem is happening due to the ability to call out of work using sick time, the inability for managers to fix the cause of a short staffing problem, or the inability of the organization to recruit new employees and retain current employees.